Category: General

I want this on a t-shirt.

Can it be true that my strong opinions on topics can prevent people from discussing things with me?

‘Cause that would be the opposite of what I’m looking for, even as that thought saddens me.

Both the SoHo Apple Store and the Fifth Avenue Apple Store are going to be open 24/7 until Christmas Day.

It’s almost like they knew I was coming. Uncanny.

I bought a new TV over the weekend.

Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not a big TV-watcher in the first place. In fact, the TV I’ve owned for the last six or seven years still has clunky round dials to turn to change the channels; one for VHF and one for UHF. I always just left the dial on channel 3, and used the remote that came with my VCR (yes, an analog video recorder… that saves its data on tape, magnetic tape like you’d see on some antique computing device) to change the channels.

But at some point in the last week or two, the TV finally stopped working. I’d received it, gratis, from a neighbor when he’d “bought” a newer TV from his work. He delivered furniture and appliances, and always had a great deal on stuff like that, stuff that had come in, used, and had to be moved to make space. He never actually said that they’d “fallen off the back of the truck” but the implication was always there, if you get my meaning. I also got a washer and dryer from him. The dryer I still have, but the washer died several years ago and I had to replace it out of my own pocket, for around $100.

Less than six months after that, my neighbor, who smoked copious amounts of weed, got involved in a car accident while working (caused, in part, because of his addiction), got fired, spent all his unemployment money on pot, became the center of lots of violent, drunken and drugged fights in my apartment building, and was finally evicted. I haven’t seen him since. He was a good kid – at least at first. I wonder what happened to him? I hope he learned his lesson.

So, my new TV. This weekend I simply couldn’t bear the thought of missing new episodes of “The Simpsons” so I set out in a trusty FlexCar Honda Element to hit the stores. I’d done just enough Googling to discover that new, 25-30″ standard-def TVs run under $300, and was hoping to find a Christmas-season deal.

Standard-def? Sure, the FCC has mandated that all TVs over 25″ have an ATSC tuner in them, making them capable, in theory, of receiving High Definition broadcasts, as of March 2006; and sure, by sometime in 2009 all television stations will be broadcasting in High Definition… but in the meantime, there’s lots of television to watch that’s still in analog. Plus, I’ve got other uses for my money this month.

I went to Fry’s, I went to Best Buy, I even went to Fred Meyer’s and Target, but they didn’t have a lot of selections in the SDTV category. Finally I tried Stuff, a local used electronics store, and found a decent Sony Trinitron 27″ tube that looked like it worked OK. $229, which may or may not be a good deal but it was in my price range and it was getting late. The sales girl, a cute redhead, helped me load it into my FlexCar, in spite of her fighting off the effects of a flu shot, and I headed home.

I tried enlisting my youngest nephew to help me carry it into my apartment, but I couldn’t reach his parents to confirm that it’d be OK for him to help out (there’s been some miscommunication in that area lately so it’s better to be clear). I was able, though, to carry the thing in myself, in stages.

And then I sat on the couch for the rest of the night… surfing… TV is so hypnotic.

The last time I was in New York City, which was in early 2000, I was walking around one evening with my friend, who was showing me around. My friend, David, was big on the “non-touristy” stuff, the stuff that only someone who lives in New York would like to see, and he showed me some places I won’t soon forget. But one moment stands out in my memory.

We were walking through Central Park, on the Upper West side. My friend had us cut through, and cross the street that bordered the Park. He was going somewhere deliberately but I had no idea where. I forget the conversation, but I was rambling on about something. Suddenly David stopped me, just as we were going to cross the street.

“Do you know where you are?”

“Um… Central Park? Manhattan?”

In a low voice, he said, “You’re standing on the spot where John Lennon was murdered.”

“Ohmighod.” I spun around and looked at the building behind me. “The Dakota?” Sure enough, there it was. I made us circle back to see the entrance. It is a striking building on its own merits. But a place now haunted by a tragedy.

I was saving this one for next week, but was reminded that today is the 26th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder.

Remember – war is over. If you want it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dDWUVizCDk]

I would like to offer a very public apology to my friends, especially Kevin. My questions and challenges are not meant to be personal, and I have not intended to embarrass anyone, least of all my friends. If my responses seemed off-putting or even hostile, I believe that to be a product of the privileged nature of the topic at hand, combined with my forceful way of discussing it.

Tracy’s plea to change the subject, even though I trust her, she’s said she trusts me, and I know her to be quite open to discussion on any other topic, shows how deeply embedded the taboo against challenging religious beliefs can run.

My original question was asked to illustrate a point, a point that Kevin was kind enough to help me elaborate (though not through any pre-arrangement between us, I have to state clearly).

Many people feel that God exists. This feeling is deemed off-limits from challenge or discussion (at least), or even elevated to a status equal to or greater than that of logic, rational thought or empirical evidence. I strongly disagree, and my reasons are many. I hope, with time, to elaborate on them. I intend to do so for as long as I live, and in as many ways and forums that I can reach, because it is a goal larger than myself in which I believe.

But people tend to take their feelings… um… personally, which explains why many find it difficult to accept the tentative and subjective nature of the contents of their head. Understandable, yes. But regrettable, as well.

But feelings, and the senses, can be wrong. Sometimes spectacularly so. If I may direct your attention to the simple observation of the solidity of the ground under your feet, and the equally obvious sight of the sun tracking across the sky, morning to night? And yet, the Earth, in fact, moves, rotating and twisting and flying in circles ’round the Sun. And the Earth’s movements are not a relative matter, but can be demonstrated, and predicted, through tools and ways of thought that are new to us (in geological terms).

Other examples are available in so many formats and places. But most of the time they’re presented as puzzles, mind-teasers, games, or entertainment. I guess people dismiss them as trivia to prevent them from acknowledging what is actually being revealed.

But they’re not just simple tricks.

Because our feelings are so easily fooled, we need ways to measure our intuitions and feelings and see if they produce an accurate model of the world in which we live. Those tools are logic, and rational thought, and the scientific method. Logic can be faulty and lead to false conclusions, true. But far less often than your senses, which are fooled myriad times a day. And logic can be corrected by the other, rational, tools.

Beliefs or “faith”, which has no foundation but itself, are incapable of correcting themselves. Someone with a strong “faith” and a somewhat working brain, can re-interpret any new evidence to support their “faith”. In just the blink of an eye, someone who wants to can see the glass as half-ful, or half-empty, and can cause all sorts of feelings to begin cascading in their brains and bodies, to give a simple example. Neither viewpoint changes the glass and the water, however. Reality is what it is.

Feelings and unfounded beliefs are nice, and all. Enjoy them, if it means savoring a delicious meal, or the warmth of friendship, or the beautiful colors of a sunset.

But don’t pollute those things by seeing things that aren’t there, like some imaginary intelligence that no one can see. And don’t pretend that the things you wish were there justify their own existence.

That’s dishonest.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you “the most important question we can ask about God”.

Please note the quotes around that phrase… I’ve got my own ideas on the topic of most important question.

I present to you one of my intellectual heroes, Richard Dawkins, answering a question from a correspondent:

What is there to distinguish your intolerance from that of a religious fanatic? TONY REYNOLDS, By e-mail

It would be intolerant if I advocated the banning of religion, but of course I never have. I merely give robust expression to views about the cosmos and morality with which you happen to disagree. You interpret that as ‘intolerance’ because of the weirdly privileged status of religion, which expects to get a free ride and not have to defend itself. If I wrote a book called The Socialist Delusion or The Monetarist Delusion, you would never use a word like intolerance. But The God Delusion sounds automatically intolerant. Why? What’s the difference?

I have a (you might say fanatical) desire for people to use their own minds and make their own choices, based upon publicly available evidence. Religious fanatics want people to switch off their own minds, ignore the evidence, and blindly follow a holy book based upon private ‘revelation’. There is a huge difference.

Feel free to click through for the other, equally direct and hopefully thought-provoking questions and answers.

Similarly, through that above-linked article I discovered Atheists for Jesus, which I find fascinating. Note for Tracy… while that site may seem funny to some, I’m still presenting it (semi-)seriously…

Oh, and I would definitely wear one of these t-shirts, though I could probably come up with a snazzier design and font… And would look sexier in it.

Happy Holidays! I’m listening to my cynical Xmas playlist today, and thought I’d do something I almost never do: post a video from YouTube.

Enjoy “Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Sometimes)” from my favorite Seattle band, the awesome Harvey Danger!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdMAkdu1dxM]

In a comment on a previous post, wecker asks (among other things):

“In my humble thinking, let me refer now to light. Can one prove light exists?”

Yes.

This has been another edition of “Simple answers to simple questions.” Thanks!

Consider this an open thread to discussing side issues raised around the topic of that previous post.